Coinciding with the International Day for Mental Health, the evening featured a play with Saudi actors in front of a live audience of patients.

“Although the play touched, albeit in a comic way, on the ways of dealing with depression, it lightened up the day for patients and they were laughing all the way through, which is the best cure,” said head of the society’s media committee, Sahar Al-Bandar.

Doctors treat schizophrenia with a variety of antipsychotic drugs, but these can have several long-term side effects.

Statistics show that one in every  100 people suffers from schizophrenia, and this rate is growing.

There are no clear reasons why people suffer from the disease, which forms a challenge for specialists.

According to the society’s board director Princess Samira Al-Faisal, the evening was organized to help ease the suffering of patients.

The theme of the international day was “Take My Hand…Share Life With Me.”

Princess Samira added that the society specializes in offering assistance and works to spread awareness of the disease, as well as cooperate with relevant organizations to improve the quality of life of mentally-ill patients and integrate them into mainstream society.

In a lecture to volunteers on how to best deal with a schizophrenic patient, marriage and family consultant Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Mehrij pointed out that there is an important difference between psychiatric patients and mental patients.

He said psychiatric patients do not usually pose a threat to those close to them.

Al-Mehrij stressed that experts should be consulted before dealing with people who are in psychiatric care or mentally ill.